This is the second part of a two-part paper on the relationship between beer brewing and witchcraft (or at least magick use) in Western pre-history.

The Magick Circle – John William Waterhouse (30)

In The Sources, following, I present and briefly discuss the reference information from which I derived the scene in Part 1 (The Cauldron Bubbles) (also noting where my artistic license came in to play). In The Land and the People,  I present the contribution of the land as it relates to brewing and beer, and add a bit of information on the known history of the origins of beer making. Finally, a Bibliography and Notes end this paper for your use in your own reading and research.

What follows are sections lifted from The Cauldron Bubbles annotated with what information I can find that supports the narrative. Also noted are details for which I cannot find good support or where I just made things up to support the narrative.

Why do this? Well, some of you may find bits and pieces of the narrative of special interest, and the annotations may guide you to further your interests. And some of you may challenge my presentation and respond. In either case, it makes sense to note the sources, for your use.

Imagine if you will, a round-house with reed roof and daubed earth walls. It is the largest home in a lonely village, somewhere in what is now Western Europe, perhaps in Scandinavia or even the Russian forests.

Image from Ancient Technology Centre (28)

Why a round house and not a square one? Well, roundhouses were built in Britain and Europe since the start of the Iron Age, and are known from all continents.(21) So, there’s no reason not to use a roundhouse. Further, this paper is focused on the magick of brewing, so why not consider the roundhouse a magick circle? If the ritual of brewing beer was considered to be magick, then it also makes sense for the brewing to take place in a sacred space.

The Women

Our modern ideas regarding woman as brewers are mainly derived from Western European cultural values of the last few hundred years (14).

“In Europe, female brewers were the norm. In England during the 1700s, a survey found 78% of licensed brewers were women. Traditionally, it was a woman’s job to brew beer for the household. In fact, certain laws stated that the tools used in brewing were solely the woman’s property. Things changed in medieval times, when monasteries began brewing beer on a larger scale for passing travelers. Gradually, women became less and less involved in brewing. The industrial revolution transferred brewing from the home to the marketplace. Men began claiming local taverns as their domain, and women began drinking less beer. Alewives were replaced by male brewers, and brewers have tended to be male ever since.” (14)

There is ample evidence that women brewed beer in prehistory and have brewed beer as long or longer than men.

“My sister, your grain – its beer is tasty, my comfort…” – Song of Songs; Sumeria, 2100 B.C. (27)

The Epic of Gilgamesh (6) contains references to Siduri; an archetypical brewster and barmaid who gave beer, comfort and counsel to Gilgamesh, greatest of the Sumerian kings.

Egyptian women brewed their beer in an area of the kitchen called “the pure,” the lady of the house always supervising. Although royal brewers were sometimes men, most Egyptian beer was made and sold by women who developed scores of beer styles (10).

From the eighth through the tenth centuries A.D., Viking women were the exclusive brewers in Norse society and law dictated that all brewhouse equipment remained the property of women only (10).

Although I have been unable to find a specific reference that considers women brewing beer to be witchcraft, there’s a lot to be said for the idea. After all it includes a cauldron, a ritual (a series of steps designed to achieve a specific goal) and can be considered to be a form of kitchen magick.

Shakespeare used cooking imagery in his iconic scene of witches around a cauldron in Macbeth:

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.  (22)

Double Double is a double adjective – a fold or plait.

- fold in, Cookery . to mix in or add (an ingredient) by gently turning one part over another: Fold in the egg whites

Stephen Buhner, in his book Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers (2) goes on at length about the special relationship of brewer with the brew in Chapter 3, Yeast: A Magical and Medicinal Plant:

All parts of the brewing process were attendant with a religious earnestness in every ancient culture (page 67).

For instance, one very old Norwegian brewer commented that she always took a little of the sweet wort and before adding yeast, went to the four corners of the brewing house, and poured a little in each corner “for the corner crones” (page 67).

…the oldest of the women, the one dressed in plaids and wearing a high cone-shaped black felt hat steps forward.

Sketch of Subashi female mummy (31)

When I first read about this and saw the sketches of the women, I was floored! Here in archeology was direct evidence suggesting that these ancestral Celtic women wearing tall, black pointy hats with wide brims were the basis for a cultural memory of magic users in Western European culture.

In the dry hills of the central Asian province, archeologists have unearthed more than 100 corpses that are as much as 4,000 years old, astonishingly well preserved–and caucasian. At a site near the town of Subashi, 310 miles west of Qizilchoqa, that dates to about the fifth century B.C., they unearthed a woman wearing a two-foot- long black felt peaked hat with a flat brim.

Three female mummies with flowing brown hair wearing 13-inch pointed felt hats of brown wool with wide brims was excavated, the reminiscent of the headgear has been described as similar to those seen in Persian bas-reliefs, to those of the Saka culture and to witches hats. The females wore sheepskin cloaks, beneath they wore long sleeved blouses and magnificent woolen skirts fastened to their waists with a cord of four colours; reminiscent of the braids found in Qizilchoqa. The skirts reached their ankles they also wore a pouch with herbs. Some scholars state that perhaps they were healers or witch doctors or that they were royalty or priestesses, nonetheless their hats represented their role and status of prestige within the community.

The plaid twills found in the region bear a resemblance to the Proto-Keltic cloth found from the salt mines at Hallstatt and Hallein in Europe, suggesting that both the eastern and western “Keltic” clothing derived from a region around the Caucasus. (9)

There really is no evidence to suggest that the Maiden/Mother/Crone symbol is anything other than modern, but it resonates well with modern Pagans and makes sense that women brewers would keep their craft within the family.

The relationship between the neopagan Triple Goddess and ancient religion is disputed. Ronald Hutton, a scholar of neopaganism, argues that the concept of the triple moon goddess as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, each facet corresponding to a phase of the moon, is a modern creation of Robert Graves, drawing on the work of 19th and 20th century scholars such as especially Jane Harrison; and also Margaret Murray, James Frazer, the other members of the “myth and ritual” school or Cambridge Ritualists, and the occultist and writer Aleister Crowley. (10)

The following four steps present the basics of brewing beer (15):

1.        Malted barley is soaked in hot water to release the malt sugars.
2.       The malt sugar solution is boiled with Hops [or other amendment, such as juniper] for seasoning.
3.       The solution is cooled and yeast is added to begin fermentation.
4.       The yeast ferments the sugars, releasing CO2 and ethyl alcohol.

When the main fermentation is complete, the beer is bottled with a little bit of added sugar to provide the carbonation.

The cauldron is placed over the fire, water is brought, measured and poured in, and the malted grain is added.

…a large metal pot, a beaten copper cauldron, family heirloom and worth all the rest of the village combined.

A Bronze Age sheet bronze cauldron and flesh-hook in the British Museum, 4 June 2010, JMiall

 Cauldrons have largely fallen out of use in the developed world as cooking vessels. While still used for practical purposes, a more common association in Western culture is the cauldron’s use in witchcraft—a cliché popularized by various works of fiction, such as Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. In fiction, witches often prepare their potions in a cauldron. Also, in Irish folklore, a cauldron is purported to be where leprechauns keep their gold and treasure.

In some forms of Wicca which incorporate aspects of Celtic mythology, the cauldron is associated with the goddess Cerridwen. Celtic legend also tells of a cauldron that was useful to warring armies: dead warriors could be put into the cauldron and would be returned to life, save that they lacked the power of speech. It was suspected that they lacked souls. These warriors could go back into battle until they were killed again. In Wicca and some other forms of neopagan or pagan belief systems the cauldron is still used in magical practices. (4)

Clean, clear water and snow are brought in bark containers, and set aside.

Together, the crone and the mother, having barred the way against evil spirits, begin the brew. The cauldron is placed over the fire, water is brought, measured and poured in, and the malted grain is added.

Over time the water and grain boils and cooks down and a rich earthy smell fills the room. The youngest uses a paddle to remove the spent grain to the hollowed out log. The grain is rich in nutrients and will be used to fatten hogs before the kill. Fresh clear snowmelt is added to dilute the thickened brew and the mother checks the temperature of the mix against the back of her hand. Once the brew is cooled sufficiently the ritual continues.

No thermometers were used (or are used now by any rural or indigenous culture); brewers learned the temperature the yeast liked best. The tradition of some Norwegian brewers is quite beautiful. They reach in and touch the back of the hand, gently, to the wort. This might not seem special until you understand that no one in Norway caresses lovers, family or children with the palm of the hand; only the back or “tender” side is used. The Palm is not “nice” enough for showing love.

When the wort was the right temperature, “just a little warmer than the lips”, the yeast log was added. … (page 66, 2)

It is clear that our ancestors and some modern-day indigenous peoples think of fermentation by yeast as the result of the action of good spirits.

Ancient peoples did not have microscopes, but they knew that there was a unique, special substance that came through the air, or sometimes on things, that caused the sugar water (the wort) to become ale. (page 64, 2)

Leaning against the wall, next to the single door is a juniper branch, trimmed at one end for easy handling, the feathery branches and a few remaining berries crusted over with a clayey substance so that the branch appears to have been steeped in mud.

Juniper branches would be placed in the barrel with the fermenting wort. As the yeast ate and produced offspring, a thick layer of yeast built up in the bottom of the barrel or fermenter, covering the juniper branches. After the beer was drawn off and the barrel was emptied, the yeast-covered juniper branches were taken out and hung up to dry. At the next brewing, a branch was taken down and put into the bottom of the barrel with new juniper branches. The wort was added, and the yeasts awakened from their hibernation and ate, making new beer once again. (page 65, 2)

Another vessel, hollowed from a log, is carried in and laid down near the fire. Handfuls of wet grain, just barely sprouted, fill the log.

Malting grain is the process of initiating partial germination, then halting the germination by ‘killing’ the grain. This results in the conversion of starch into simple sugars that can be fermented.

Two enzymes, α- and β-amylases, carry out the conversion. The latter is present in barley, but the former is made only during germination of the grain. (1)

The process of germinating the barley, followed by killing it off strongly suggests that John Barleycorn is the slain god whose body (chaff) is scattered to the winds. (page 158, 2)

It’s not a large leap of faith to realize that our ancestors would have considered the actions of yeast to be those of a good spirit, or of sacred origin. After all, the liquid (wort) changed character, color, solids separated out and bubbling occurred.

Ancient peoples did not have microscopes, but they knew that there was a unique, special substance that came through the air, or sometimes on things, that caused the sugar water (the wort) to become ale. (page 64, 2)

Now it is time to invite the good spirits into the brew, and the mother takes down the dusty juniper branch and uses it to stir the now-cooled contents of the cauldron. Three times one way, then three times the other, repeated thrice and thrice again. The ritual is as old as time; the chanting and sacred nature of the event have served to preserve the process over generations.

Within oral preliterate cultures, rituals keep alive, reproduce, and circulate identity preserving formative knowledge, thereby foregoing the leading self-images. ‘Rites are channels, the ‘vessels’ through which identity is preserved.’ (12)

As the pot is stirred the crone takes liquid and drops libations to the four major compass directions of the round-house. In other places (foreign places where the houses are square) the offerings are made to the corners, to the corner crones, but that is not how it is done here.

For instance, one very old Norwegian brewer commented that she always took a little of the sweet wort and before adding yeast, went to the four corners of the brewing house, and poured a little in each corner “for the corner crones” (page 67, 2).

Inviting the Good Spirits In

Now it is time to invite the good spirits into the brew, and the mother takes down the dusty juniper branch and uses it to stir the now-cooled contents of the cauldron.

The good spirits have been invited in and the pot is moved to a stand at one side of the round-house, away from the light.

It’s not a large leap of faith to realize that our ancestors would have considered the actions of yeast to be those of a good spirit. After all, the liquid (wort) changed character, color, solids separated out and bubbling occurred.

Ancient peoples did not have microscopes, but they knew that there was a unique, special substance that came through the air, or sometimes on things, that caused the sugar water (the wort) to become ale. (page 64, 2)

And after all that, there were the wonderful effects of drinking alcohol.

Keeping out Evil Spirits

At the door, the middle-aged woman lowers a wooden bar to lock that entrance against unwanted spirits.

There’s good reason to do this; it keeps wild yeast out. And although our ancestors would not yet have known what yeast is, or its direct relationship to fermentation, by observation they would have realized that there was some need to protect the brew against souring.

Unlike traditional beer-brewing, which is done in a sterile environment to guard against the intrusion of wild yeast,[1] sour beers are made by allowing wild yeast strains or bacteria into the brew. (23)

In one hand she holds a knife, and in the other a deeply carved stick. Raising both, the crone blesses the tools in the smoke of the hearth, and turns to the door. As she holds the wand high she chants in an old, barely understood language, and carves a deep line into its wood, adding it to the ones already there.

A calendar was an essential part of every home and displayed in the corner where prized and religious objects were kept. The days were marked by holes or by notches, in many ways. Calendars like this were in use into the 19th century, but very few seem to have survived. One type, was a carved staff of six sides, the days of the month notched along the edges.(12)

So, yes, that’s a bit of a stretch, but we do know that our ancestors used sticks (11) to keep information on and this makes for a cool image.

Teaching The Branches

The sediment left behind is cleaned from the cauldron with the juniper broom, and adds another layer of clayey material to the juniper leaves and few remaining berries. As the branch becomes unusable it will be tied to a newer, fresher branch and will train that branch in its proper roles before the older branch is set aside to be burned. The crone tells the younger ones that in her mother’s day, before the copper was available they used clay pots to brew in, and shards from older pots were placed in younger pots to train them in their proper role.

Juniper branches would be placed in the barrel with the fermenting wort. As the yeast ate and produced offspring, a thick layer of yeast built up in the bottom of the barrel or fermenter, covering the juniper branches. After the beer was drawn off and the barrel was emptied, the yeast-covered juniper branches were taken out and hung up to dry. At the next brewing, a branch was taken down and put into the bottom of the barrel with new juniper branches. The wort was added, and the yeasts awakened from their hibernation and ate, making new beer once again. (page 65, 2)

The Tarahumara Indians, when making pulque, a fermented agave cactus beer, place the sweet water-and-sap mixture in special clay jars. The call fermentation “boiling”, and once a jar “learns to boil”, it is placed near other jars (filled with unfermented pulque) that have not learned how to boil so that they might be taught to do so. (page 4, 2)

Never washed, it [the clay jar] has residues of yeasts in it and initiates fermentation whenever new, unfermented pulque is added to it. (page 75, 2)

In other places (foreign places where the houses are square) the offerings are made to the corners, to the corner crones, but that is not how it is done here.

In a roundhouse there are no corners, so offerings go to four compass directions instead:

For instance, one very old Norwegian brewer commented that she always took a little of the sweet wort and before adding yeast, went to the four corners of the brewing house, and poured a little in each corner “for the corner crones” (page 67, 2).

This offering, for instance with tiswin, is common throughout the indigenous world, … (page 68, 2).

This is ancient magick, women’ magick; the men will have their turn when it comes time to drink, for although the women will also drink and make merry it is the men who will drink again and again until the divine madness comes upon them and they begin to speak in rare words and images. The women have the magick of making but it is the men who have the magick of dying and rebirthing; they sacrifice their dignity and roles, and for a while are reborn to the world as skalds, storytellers and sacred fools.

Gift of the Gods

The carved wand is used to stir the pot as the crone and the mother take turns telling the stories of how the goddess brought a gift to womankind, the poet’s gift of divine madness.

Probably the oldest written account of the discovery of grain fermentation is included in Rune XX of the Finnish epic Kalevala, circa 1000 B.C. Basically, the epic relates how a semi-divine woman creates the first fermentation of barley for human beings. (page 148, 2)

and

The Finnish epic Kalevala, collected in written form in the 19th century but based on oral traditions many centuries old, devotes more lines to the origin of beer and brewing than it does to the origin of mankind.

According to Czech legend, deity Radegast, god of hospitality, invented beer.

Ninkasi was the patron goddess of brewing in ancient Sumer.

In Egyptian mythology, the immense blood-lust of the fierce lioness goddess Sekhmet was only sated after she was tricked into consuming an extremely large amount of red-coloured beer: she became so drunk that she gave up slaughter altogether and became docile.

In Norse mythology the sea god Ægir, his wife Rán, and their nine daughters, brewed ale (or mead) for the gods. In the Lokasenna, it is told that Ægir would host a party where all the gods would drink the beer he brewed for them. He made this in a giant kettle that Thor had brought. The cups in Ægir’s hall were always full, magically refilling themselves when emptied. Ægir had two servants in his hall to assist him; Eldir [Fire-Kindler] and Fimafeng [Handy].

In Nart sagas, Satanaya (Ubykh [satanaja], Adyghe [setenej], Ossetian [ʃatana]), the mother of the Narts, a fertility figure and matriarch, invented beer. (10)

This is ancient magick, women’ magick; the men will have their turn when it comes time to drink, for although the women will also drink and make merry it is the men who will drink again and again until the divine madness comes upon them and they begin to speak in rare words and images. The women have the magick of making but it is the men who have the magick of dying and rebirthing; they sacrifice their dignity and roles, and for a while are reborn to the world as skalds, storytellers and sacred fools.

The ancient Egyptians brewed a mandrake beer, the American Indians spiced up their maize beer (chicha) with coca leaves (Erythroxylon coca), angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia sp.), and morning glory seeds (Ipomoea sp., Turbina corymbosa). Oriental beer was often improved with hashhish and opium, while dried fly agaric mushrooms were crumbled into beer in Siberia. The Gods brewed beer from darnel (Lolium temulentum),… The pagan “Mead of Inspiration” as no simple beer or mead, but must have been a psychoactive beverage whose inebriating ingredients had a stimulating effect upon creativity. (20)

It might be so if madness were simply an evil; but there is also a madness which is a divine gift, and the source of the chiefest blessings granted to men. (16)

In all the regions of the world, the land has provided the basic ingredients from which a fermented alcoholic beverage is made: fresh water, grain, honey, fruit or other source of simple sugars, yeast, and herbal and fruit amendments.

The ancient Egyptians brewed a mandrake beer, the American Indians spiced up their maize beer (chicha) with coca leaves (Erythroxylon coca), angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia sp.), and morning glory seeds (Ipomoea sp., Turbina corymbosa). Oriental beer was often improved with hashhish and opium, while dried fly agaric mushrooms were crumbled into beer in Siberia. The Gods brewed beer from darnel (Lolium temulentum),…

Different grains were used in different cultures:

a) Africa used millet, maize and cassava.

b) North America used persimmon although agave was used in Mexico.

c) South America used corn although sweet potatoes were used in Brazil.

d) Japan used rice to make sake.

e) China used wheat to make samshu.

f) Other Asian cultures used sorghum.

g) Russians used rye to make quass or kvass.

h) Egyptians used barley and may have cultivated it strictly for brewing as it made poor bread.

Early brewers used herbals like balsam, hay, dandelion, mint, and wormwood seeds, horehound juice, and even crab claws & oyster shells for flavorings.

1490′s Columbus found Indians making beer from corn and black birch sap. (19)

~

“The most direct influence of geology is with beer — which one rarely hears about,” says Alex Maltman, a geologist at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. “The link comes about because beer is mostly water, and for most brewers this is obtained from a local aquifer.”

Breweries have traditionally been located on rivers, but, contrary to popular belief, brewers typically used surface river water only for running and cooling machinery, and drew their brewing water from groundwater wells or springs. “The geology of the aquifer directly influences the pH and concentrations of certain key ions,” says Rick Saltus, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Denver, Colo. And water geochemistry, Maltman says, “affects both the brewing process — and hence the most suitable beer styles — and the taste of the beer.”

Although water chemistry strongly determines the type of beer that can be made from it, Wakabayashi says that it isn’t the most important influence on a brew’s flavor. “It is my opinion that flavor characteristics of malted barley, hop varieties and different fermentation flavor profiles imparted by different yeast strains are far greater influences in beer flavor than brewing water,” he says.

But here too, geology plays a role. Maltman says that the regions most suitable for growing barley and hops are fertile, well-drained volcanic soils. More than 70 percent of American hops are now grown on the deep alluvial soils of the Yakima and Willamette Valleys of Washington and Oregon, which are derived from the nearby Cascade volcanic uplands. (17)

• Historians speculate that prehistoric nomads may have made beer from grain & water before learning to make bread.
• Beer became ingrained in the culture of civilizations with no significant viticulture.
• Noah’s provisions included beer on the Ark.
• 4300 BC, Babylonian clay tablets detail recipes for beer.
• Beer was a vital part of civilization and the Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Chinese, and Inca cultures.
• Babylonians produced beer in large quantities with around 20 varieties.
• Beer at this time was so valued that it was sometimes used to pay workers as part of their daily wages.
• Early cultures often drank beer through straws to avoid grain hulls left in the beverage.
• Egyptians brewed beer commercially for use by royalty served in gold goblets, medical purposes, and as a necessity to be included in burial provisions for the journey to the hereafter.
• Romans brewed “cerevisia” (Ceres the goddess of agriculture & vis meaning strength in Latin).
• 55 BC Roman legions introduce beer to Northern Europe.
• 49 BC Caesar toasted his troops after crossing the Rubicon, which began the Roman Civil War.
• 23 BC Chinese brewed beer called “kiu”

500-1000 AD the first half of the Middle Ages, brewing begins to be practiced in Europe, shifting from family tradition to centralized production in monasteries and convents (hospitality for traveling pilgrims). (19)

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30.    Unknown. ‘The Magic Circle’ by John William Waterhouse. N.d. Tate Museum, Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG,. JW Waterhouse: The Art and Life of John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Primary source.
31.    Unknown, Artist. Sketch of Subashi female mummy. N.d. Unknown, Unknown. . Web. Primary source.
32.    Witcombe, Christopher L. C. E. . “Sacred Places: Water and the Sacred.” Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe. Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, Professor, Department of Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia, 24595 USA , n.d. Web. 3 Aug. 2012. <http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/water.html>.
33.    “Women in Beer.” Alephanalia Spring 1993: 19. Print. Questionable secondary source. 

Notes on sources

I note that only some of my sources would meet strict academic criteria for being primary sources. Good thing then, that it isn’t required. However, we Pagans have been criticized for not documenting our sources very well, so this is an attempt to ramp up my writing a bit by generally following the MLA (8) recognized bibliographic style and identifying my sources as primary versus secondary.

Primary versus Secondary Sources

According to the Princeton University Library (18), a primary source is:

“…a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study. These sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an inside view of a particular event. Some types of primary sources include:

 ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (excerpts or translations acceptable): Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records

 CREATIVE WORKS: Poetry, drama, novels, music, art

 RELICS OR ARTIFACTS: Pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings”

And a secondary source:

“…interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed from the event. Secondary sources may have pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources in them. Some types of secondary sources include:

 PUBLICATIONS: Textbooks, magazine papers, histories, criticisms, commentaries, encyclopedias ”

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